(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to decontaminating coatings, and more particularly to decontaminating coatings in which the decontaminating effect is triggered by electroactivating the coating.
(2) Description of the Related Art
The need to protect or cleanse surfaces of contaminants is important in many different contexts. It is well known that equipment, floors, walls, counters, and the like, in hospitals and health care facilities must be sanitized regularly. Food service equipment and facilities must be cleaned and sanitized. Certain processing equipment in some manufacturing and/or diagnostic facilities demands a high level of cleanliness and freedom from contaminants.
In a different context, it is important to be able to decontaminate or neutralize chemical and biological warfare agents in order to reduce or avoid grave injury or death of human beings. In this context, the purposeful deployment of extremely aggressive and harmful chemical or biological agents is meant to cause massive contamination of exposed surfaces, which can remain dangerous to living subjects for as long as the harmful agent retains its potency and remains on the surface. Not only are organizations such as the armed forces interested in dealing with such harmful agents, but organizations such as post offices, package delivery services, and the like, are also vigilant to such attacks.
Many sanitization and cleaning methods and compounds are well known in the art that meet the needs of common cleaning and sanitizing requirements. More recently, greater attention has been placed on improved and different techniques and compounds that can be used for the decontamination of surfaces and articles contaminated with chemical and biological warfare agents.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/471,877, Kinlen et al. disclosed a method of producing peroxides in a coating, which comprised providing a coating comprising a peroxide source and a peroxide activating catalyst, causing the peroxide source to produce a peroxide, and contacting the peroxide with the catalyst to produce activated peroxide. That application also disclosed a coating for a surface, wherein the coating comprised a peroxide source and a peroxide activating catalyst in a durable matrix.